Samsung: Faster Galaxy S4 is on the way

A faster model of the Galaxy S4 smartphone will be available this month in South Korea, Samsung's CEO tells Reuters.

Story highlights

Report: Samsung CEO says phone to be released first in South Korea

Variant will transmit data at twice the normal speed

Samsung in talks with carriers in other countries about the phone, report says

Samsung's flagship smartphone could be getting twice as fast.

The South Korean electronics company plans to release a quicker version of the Galaxy S4, says CEO J.K. Shin. He told Reuters it will be for sale in South Korea later this month.

The phones, which will be powered by a new Qualcomm processor, use what's being called LTE-advanced technology, which will reportedly deliver data at speeds up to twice those of current 4G LTE connections.

Some downloads could be even quicker. A movie that takes three minutes to download on the current Galaxy S4 would take one minute on the new phone, Samsung told Reuters

Shin said Samsung is in talks with carriers in other countries about the phone. He did not specify which countries, or carriers.

The Galaxy S4 has been Samsung's most popular smartphone yet. It passed 10 million sales in its first month -- a clip that outpaced its predecessor, the S3, which emerged as the Android system's most successful rival to the iPhone.

Recently, though, both Apple and Samsung have seen a slowdown in sales of top-end smartphones, as that market has shown signs of becoming saturated. An even faster S4, obviously, would be an effort to appeal to that upper-tier buyer who's willing to fork over cash for the fanciest and fastest new models.

Shin told Reuters the new model would be "slightly more expensive" than the current S4, which sells for $199 and up, depending on the carrier and which service plan the customer signs up for.

There also have been unconfirmed reports that Apple will release a cheaper version of its iPhone. As the high-end market tightens up, Apple, Samsung and other phone makers are eyeing developing countries, where interest in smartphones is still growing.